San Francisco Performances presents the Brentano Quartet with Vijay Iyer
2015-05-10
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:00 PM, Sunday, May 10, 2015

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• Haydn: Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 50, No. 1
• Vijay Iyer: Time, Place, Action [West Coast premiere]
• Debussy: Quartet

[7:04 PM lights down]

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): String Quartet No. 36 in B-flat Major, Opus 50, No. 1, Hob. III:44 (1787)

1. [7:04 PM] Allegro
2. [7:10 PM] Adagio non lento
3. [7:17 PM] Menuetto: Poco allegretto
4. [7:20 PM] Finale: Vivace
   [work ends 7:25 PM; bows and applause, then all off for a few moments before returning with Iyer]

Vijay Iyer: Time, Place, Action [West Coast premiere]

1. [7:28 PM] (opus)
   [work ends 8:02 PM; bows and applause, then all off for a few moments before Iyer returns alone]

Vijay Iyer: Meta-Études [world premiere]

1. [8:04 PM] (opus)
   [set ends 8:14 PM]

[8:35 PM lights down]

Claude Debussy (1862-1918): String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (1893)

1. [8:36 PM] Animé et très décidé
2. [8:43 PM] Assez vif et bien rythmé
3. [8:48 PM] Andantino, doucement expressif
4. [8:56 PM] Très modéré - En animant peu à peu - Très mouvementé et avec passion
   [show ends 9:03 PM]

Brentano Quartet

• Misha Amory: viola;
• Serena Canin: violin;
• Nina Lee: cello;
• Mark Steinberg: violin.

• Vijay Iyer: piano.

I really enjoyed all four works on this program, and I look forward to seeing both Iyer and the Brentano Quartet again in the future.

So what's up with Haydn and false endings? Just a clever bit of musical rhetoric that he happens to fall back on too often? Perhaps some day I'll find an easy explanation of the issue, for now, I'll simply comment that I find it a little bothersome and not at all witty or pleasantly surprising (as program notes typically imply regarding these bits).

In retrospect, it would have been really interesting to have had a Q&A session with Iyer after the show; his quintet obviously had multiple sections, but that was glossed over in his program note. I'd like to have heard him talk about the piece and also hear how the other performers approached it, given that his program note suggested that the piece was not entirely through-composed. More specifically, I'm curious to hear how the work has changed since its premiere in Houston, and whether he or the Brentano have plans to keep it in their active repertoire. Similarly, I'm curious to know if the follow up solo, Meta-Études, represented a single example in a group under that title, or multiple parts (that I didn't distinguish) or what. Unlike Smoliar , I didn't hear anything particular tough (?tough? gotta be one of those damned inscrutable autocorrections; too bad I don't recall what I was trying to say!) or unfinished in that piece, but I'd guess that it represented the exploration of only a few of his “generative elements”; I'd be quite keen to hear what he has waiting on store for the rest!

And while closing today's program with Debussy might have seemed like a fine idea last fall, in terms of approachability, I'd have rearranged things to put it after Haydn (closing the first set). The two works by Iyer were certainly strong enough to stand alone as the conclusion of the night's musical explorations.

Rebecca Wishnia appears to have other opinions about the show, as disclosed in her writeup for SFCV. Different strokes for different folks is all I can say!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!